Field Report #1

After the tournament, Sovacore, Brother Thomas, and I were approached by a strange individual in white robes who called himself Kami. He explained to us that he was only the most recent in a long line of Kami's and was serving as Guardian of the Earth. This Kami delivered a warning that a storm was coming and that we three might be the only warriors capable of heading off this threat. He said that there were aliens on the way with incredible power. I informed Kami, that any such threat was probably already being dealt with by the Red Ribbon Army, but Kami suggested that the Army may not be aware of what was coming, and that even they might not possess the ability to defeat these aliens who were coming to conquer the Earth. Kami offered to take us off to his look-out for training. He demonstrated his ability to gather and project energy, which was very similar to my ability to harness electricity. I saw the potential to become stronger, which after failing to win the AHS Tournament could only improve my standing within the Red Ribbon Army. Plus getting to train with the champion, and the person who beat me, could help to give me an edge in the next tournament, should I face them again. When I informed my commanding officer accompanying me to the tournament, I was surprised that Kami was correct and the RR was unaware of the coming alien invaders. After conferring with HQ, my commanding officer gave me permission to go on leave to train with Kami and learn all that I could about this invasion, Kami, and my fellow fighters. I will be making field reports about what goes on while training.

Once we were all squared away and ready to depart, Kami produced a special hover car from a capsule that he had concealed in his robes. We all rode back to Kami's lookout together, while he filled us in on the details of the coming alien threat. Apparently Kami learned of this alien invasion from a voice that spoke to him. There were two aliens on their way from some distant planet. These aliens can also generate energy much as Kami demonstrated. According to him, the Earth used to have guardians that could protect it from threats like this, but those old guardians had long since gone. Now there was no one on the planet with enough power to stop this invasion, and Kami needed to gather and train a new group of protectors. We arrived at Kami's look out, which looked oddly like an old light house on the coast. Throughout the structure were various rooms for training and living purposes. Kami took us to the top of his look out which was open to the sky and very peaceful. Kami also demonstrated his ability to break free of Earth's gravity and fly. I have never known another being who could fly this way. In my excitement, I revealed that I too could fly by summoning a bolt of lightning and riding it. Kami asked me if I could do any other tricks like this, so I demonstrated my Red Ribbon Lash technique on one of the training dummies, gathering the electrical charge in the atmosphere and turning it into a ring of scarlet lightning that I hurled out to crack with a thunderous strike against the dummy.

Kami then instructed us that it was time to see what were made of. He struck out at Sovacore first, who managed to roll out of the way, then Kami kicked out at Brother Thomas and myself. Brother Thomas countered with a double fisted punch which seemed to catch Kami completely off guard, and as Kami staggered back, I spun and swept Kami's legs out from under him. I must have used more force than intended because the kick to his legs sent him sailing over the edge of the look-out to crash into the ground below. I rode a bolt down to check on him. He was ok physically, but I think we must have broken him down a bit mentally. He seemed very distraught, and decided to just fly away. I followed him to find out what was wrong. After all, I had come to train. I didn't want my new master to just abandon us. And he was the only one that the voice had spoken to about the aliens. But Kami couldn't be persuaded back. I think he needed some time to try to find himself again after being defeated like that. However, he did leave us the look-out to use as we saw fit. I realize that I was given permission to investigate this alien threat, and train under Kami, but I believe that I would do well to stay and continue training with the others. They are the reigning champion and second place winner of the AHS tournament after all. I'm sure that I could learn a lot from studying with them, so I decided to go back to the look-out. When I got there, Brother Thomas and Sovacore were sparing with Brother Thomas firing his energy blast, while Sovacore dodged him. After a few rounds of that, I decided to see if I couldn't make contact with the voice by meditating at the top of the look-out.

I succeeded in achieving a very deep meditative state, but I contacted no voices. What I did realize, was that while Sovacore was doing hand-stand push-ups on the ledge of the look-out, his Shadow was doing something  completely different. When I pointed this out to Sovacore, his Shadow suddenly punched him in the chest. It took on a more solid form, but without any real noticeable features. Sovacore tried thowing a few punches back, but couldn't seem to land anything. I quickly hopped on a bolt and streaked off to inform Brother Thomas who was swimming out to one of the islands off the coast from the look-out for exercise, then came charging back in, leaping off my bolt with a flying kick ... and sailed right through the Shadow. The Shadow took a swipe at me with some sort of claw like fingers, but he seemed to be having trouble solidifying and they passed right through me. Still it was a very unpleasant sensation. Then Sovacore came in with another strike, this time though, as his fist passed through the Shadow, he let out a strange flare that set the creature reeling. The Shadow was just stared at him in disbelief, and then it spoke: "You actually touched me!" It sounded both shocked, and disgusted by the concept.

"Why are you attacking us? What purpose could this possibly serve?" I asked, now knowing that it was capable of speech. It just gave me a look that could have been contempt, or it could have been boredom (it's hard to tell with a featureless face), then said "Just following orders." I tried firing a Red Ribbon Lash at the creature, but the lightning passed through it as easily as my physical attack had. Brother Thomas arrived about then, and Sovacore made another move, but the Shadow just faded away and left us all standing there wondering. What was this thing? Where had it come from? Why couldn't we touch it? Whose orders was it acting on? I don't think this creature has anything to do with the coming threat Kami warned us about, but if we don't deal with this new enemy first, we may not be around long enough to have to worry about that.

The AHS Tournament

Today I faced my first true challenge. My superior in the Red Ribbon Army sent me to participate in the AHS tournament, and some very interesting developments arose as a result. In the first round of the tournament, I was pushed to the limits of physical abilities when I found myself paired up against Grizle the bear (yes, that's right, a bear). The fight took a lot out of me, but I eventually defeated my powerful opponent, and I did it all through sheer physical ability. I was not so fortunate in the second round, however. I faced a strange monk named Thomas. The fight with the bear head been an exhausting effort, and no matter how hard I hit the monk, he seemed to recover almost instantly. While this fight did not drag out as long as my battle with the bear did, we seemed very well matched in our techniques and fought with an outstanding give and take. Again, I relied only on my physical capabilities and never resorted to using my energy technique. I was eventually defeated by the monk. I can take some solace in that fact knowing that in his next match Thomas displayed an incredible energy attack. Clearly my opponent was more than a simple monk and I was unprepared for such an opponent (I can only hope that my RR superiors will see it this way as well). What I found most unsettling though was that Thomas' opponent in that next round was no mortal creature. The thing that he fought was an abomination being controlled by some outside force. Too much of a coward to fight himself, he sent the thing in to do his dirty work for him. After the match I followed what remained of the puppet (Thomas' energy attack had obliterated more than half of it) to what I assume must have been it's puppeteer. A strange looking man in a hearse, who actually tried to get into my mind with some sort of mental ability. No doubt he was controlling his minion in a similar fashion. This man has desecrated the honor of the tournament with his actions. The look that we exchanged outside the arena left little doubt in my mind that we would meet again. Adding more insult to my injuries, Thomas did not go on to win the AHS Tournament; another fighter, Sovacour(? the way the announcer-bot kept saying it sounded a lot like "softcore") beat him while I was out facing off with the Hearse Driver... I had entered the tournament to test my abilities, but I was not ready for the level of combatant that I encountered out there in the world. I must speak with Professor Green when I return to RRHQ. I need more training. If the Hearse Driver and I do meet again, I had better have a way to combat his mental abilities... That's assuming that I'm not executed for failing to win the tournament. I doubt that though. I'm sure Professor Green will defend my performance. It is truly a much stranger world out there than I gave it credit for. And I must be be prepared to face it, if I am to win glory and honor for Red Ribbon.